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Ambition is the subtlest beast of the intellectual and moral field. It is wonderfully adroit in concealing itself from its owner.

John Adams

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John Adams
Age: 90 †
Born: 1735
Born: October 19
Died: 1826
Died: July 4
2Nd U.S. President
Diplomat
Lawyer
Political Philosopher
Politician
Statesperson
Braintree
Massachusetts
President Adams
J. Adams
President John Adams
Subtlest
Fields
Concealing
Intellectual
Wonderfully
Moral
Owner
Owners
Beast
Field
Adroit
Ambition

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But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
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There are persons whom in my heart I despise, others I abhor. Yet I am not obliged to inform the one of my contempt, nor the other of my detestation. This kind of dissimulation...is a necessary branch of wisdom, and so far from being immoral...that it is a duty and a virtue.
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I shall have liberty to think for myself without molesting others or being molested myself.
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As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him.
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I have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world.
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There is something very unnatural and odious in a government a thousand leagues off. A whole government of our own choice, managed by persons whom we love, revere, and can confide in, has charms in it for which men will fight.
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The numbers of men in all ages have preferred ease, slumber, and good cheer to liberty, when they have been in competition.
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The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families.
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. . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.
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All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.
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There never was yet a people who must not have somebody or something to represent the dignity of the state, the majesty of the people, call it what you will - a doge, an avoyer, an archon, a president, a consul, a syndic this becomes at once an object of ambition and dispute, and, in time, of division, faction, sedition, and rebellion.
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People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity.
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During the whole time I sat with him in Congress, I never heard him utter three sentences together.
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Had I been chosen President again, I am certain I could not have lived another year.
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When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.
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A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition.
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Borrowed eloquence, if it contains as good stuff, is as good as own eloquence
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I am determined to control events, not be controlled by them.
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Mystery is made a convenient Cover for absurdity.
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I Pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessing on this house, and on ALL that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof!
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